Tuesday, September 21, 2010

We were hit by quite a storm last Thursday and a tornado touched down not too far from my home. So, I was in the backyard late this afternoon looking at what still needed to be cleaned up. A tree man had come and gotten the top of my neighbor's tree out of the pool and from the branches above. Now if the cable company will come to get the wires out of the pool. Anyhow, my eye caught this flitting among the trees. The bird was so small I immediately thought warbler. He came and went and at a couple of points I saw two of them. At first all I could see was that it's belly was white and it had a black throat and it looked black above except for a white wing spot. I spotted it fly up from the ground once and got the impression that it was blue in it's upper parts. Could it be a black-throated blue warbler still in breeding plumage? I looked in my neighbor's yard and there he was foraging around; definately blue above with black face and throat. I was amazed and thrilled. The pictures are not great because it was so late in the afternoon and I had to run most of them through photo shop but I think you will agree with me that it is a Black-throated Blue Warbler. Two of them at least right here in a Brooklyn backyard. Who would have thought?

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I had another small bird in the backyard as well this afternoon which I am trying to identify. I'll post the picture of that one tomorrow. I may need help figuring out its identity.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

What a gorgeous, weather wise, day we had for the BwBTC outing in RI on Sat. Dan of NatureObservances http://forestal-plantedtanks.blogspot.com/ wrote a great account in detail and Larry of The Brownstone Birding Blog http://brownstonebirder.blogspot.com/ wrote a clever and very funny account. I believe we saw 70 different birds for the day.
My day started by oversleeping (of all days) and thank goodness I was already in Rhode Island and therefore only 15 minutes late. I was the one who fell in the mud, "Baby Steps," Jeff advised afterwards, and it worked. At least it was the mud I fell in and not the water! After that the day went smoothly. Many laughs and good birding and other discussions with old and new friends. Dawn and Jeff of Dawns bloggy blog http://dawnandjeffsblog.blogspot.com/ did a fantastic job of organizing and scouting out the places we birded, Thank You!

"Don't you even think about getting near my fish; somebody already ate half of it."

Western Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper (I think)

Fledgling Black-billed Cuckoo
When we first saw this bird that John (Birdman from Bridgewater) found, the parent was feeding it a rather large green grasshopper. It was amazing to watch. The parent held onto the grasshopper while the fledgling would grab on and chew and then let go. This went on for a good five minutes until the fledgeling got the grasshopper to a point it could swallow it.

Female Ring-necked Pheasant
This particular bird just weaved in and out of the brush and across the path as if non of us were there.

The 10,000 Birds Conservation Club

BwBTC

About Me

I am a retired teacher in Brooklyn, NY. I love Maine, nature and taking pictures. I've realized that I love observing bird and animal behavior. I have done extensive genealogy research on my many family lines and researched the history of the school I worked in to celebrate it's 150th anniversary in 2011.This blog lets me share my travel, the birds I see, my photography and comments.